Myths about alcohol
Myths about alcohol
Although eating before alcohol helps control how quickly alcohol enters the bloodstream, a hearty meal will not protect you from the effects of binge drinking. Yes, it is true that high-fat foods slow down the absorption of alcohol in the body, but this is because a valve closes between the stomach and intestines during meals, where alcohol is absorbed faster. But eventually alcohol will be absorbed, and the body’s ability to process a certain amount of alcohol from the amount of food eaten does not change.
On average, a person can process 10–12 g of alcohol per hour, which corresponds to one standard drink: 280–330 ml of beer, 150–180 ml of champagne, 30–40 ml of whiskey or spirits, 60–80 ml of liqueur and 100–120 ml of red wine . It should be remembered that the alcohol content of beverages depends on the strength and volume of the beverage. Eating before or during drinking helps control how quickly alcohol enters your bloodstream, but it will not protect you from the effects of excessive drinking.
Alcohol is eliminated from the body at a certain time, and it can not be accelerated by black coffee, cold showers or sports exercises. The rate at which alcohol is broken down depends on gender, metabolic rate, health status, food eaten, body fluids, age and liver status.
Although the caffeine in coffee can make you feel awake, it does not change the effect of alcohol on your coordination, reaction time and judgment. It takes time to clear up the effects of alcohol. How much you drink determines how many hours it will take for the alcohol to disappear from the blood. If you drink too much, even many hours after you stop drinking, your body may still contain significant amounts of alcohol, and coffee does not have the power to reduce it.
A better advice is not to drink liters of coffee, but to drink in moderation and at the same time drink plenty of water. This will prevent alcohol-induced dehydration and hangover symptoms the next morning – headaches, nausea, etc. Water is the best choice because it slows down intoxication and helps to remove alcohol more easily from the body, reducing its concentration in the blood.
Energy drinks contain caffeine and other stimulants that make you less sleepy while drinking. Like coffee, energy drinks do not change the way alcohol affects your body. You will still suffer from the effects of excessive drinking. In addition, some new studies suggest that mixing high amounts of caffeine with alcohol can increase risky, aggressive behavior, as well as cause palpitations and insomnia.
Over-the-counter and prescription medications often interact with alcohol in ways you might not expect. Mixing medicines with alcohol can cause serious liver damage. The effects can be dangerous to your health. If you are taking any medicine, you should consult your family doctor or pharmacist before drinking alcohol.
The feeling of heat is misleading! If you are frozen, blood vessels will really dilate and improve the blood supply to the internal organs while drinking. There will be a pleasant feeling of warmth, but only about 50 grams of strong alcohol will provide such a feeling. Each subsequent serving of alcohol will have the opposite effect – will increase the heat output, and the body will cool down even more.
Although alcohol use can create great self-confidence, for men, prolonged and heavy alcohol use can reduce sexual ability and fertility. This creates a situation characterized by the proverb: “Want to want, but can’t”.
Consumption of gradual drinks causes the body to dehydrate. Dehydrated skin not only experiences the first wrinkles faster, but also looks unhealthy gray. This is because alcohol “takes away” vitamin A, an antioxidant that is needed for cells to regenerate and replace.
Exceeding the permissible daily dose will also harm the body with quality alcohol. However, poor quality alcohol is undoubtedly more toxic to the body, and the consequences of its use are unpredictable.
Beer is also alcohol, not juice, which can be consumed in unlimited quantities. It does not contain much alcohol, but this does not mean that beer is not harmful to health. It is addictive and is consumed in much larger quantities. For example, 0.3 l of 5% beer = 30 g of vodka.
Alcohol tolerance has no direct bearing on overall health. However, if a person gradually begins to tolerate increasing amounts of alcohol, it is evidence that alcohol dependence develops.
Because women have a proportionately higher amount of fat in their bodies, but men have a higher water content, drinking the same amount of alcohol concentration of it in blood will be higher for women. Also, for women, the liver produces less alcohol, the enzyme dehydrogenase, which is used to process alcohol. It is for this reason that women get drunk faster than men and have a longer state of intoxication.
Alcohol has a very high energy value. The amount of calories in any drink depends on the percentage of sugar and alcohol. A glass of wine contains as many calories as 30 g of vodka with ice or a glass of gin with a tonic.
If you are worried about weight, do not choose sweet cocktails. Many alcoholic cocktails with added syrups are very rich in calories, so a better choice will be a drink with a lower alcohol content and ice. It will stay cool longer and will dilute the alcohol as the ice melts. This will prolong the sipping of the drink and reduce the temptation to order the next glass.
Read more about calories in alcohol here.